Preseason Thread

[SportsWorld]

Anybody watching? So far Okoye and Marion Barber are impressing me.

[MF Doom]

Bears looking good so far.

[SportsWorld]

Only negatives I've seen so far is the offensive line, Vernon Gholston (He's gonna be cut if he continues to play like this), and Caleb Hanie looks a little shaky. Other than that, team looks good.

[BIGGIEsmalls 23]

Glad you started this thread, SportsWorld. I gotta disagree with you about the line. I saw a 1st unit offensive line that looked a lot better than I expected, considering it's their first bit of action together. Hanie was ok IMO. Marion Barber is still a beast & I believe that he's gonna be the STEAL of free-agency. Chester Taylor will not make the final roster & Zack Bowman is still too fragile to be counted upon.

[BIGGIEsmalls 23]

Game over....Bears win!!!!!

10-3 final score

[emperorjones]

Didn't see the game as once again I am out of the country for the entire preseason ((3 years running) and had no internet access to stream it last night.

That said, it seems like the O-Line's pass protection was not there, but watching the highlightsmm,, there seemed to be some good holes opened up in the running game? Also saw a good pulling guard block from Chris Willliams- but that is just from highlights. Biggie, wwhat were your thoughts on the O-Line and D-Tackles?

[BIGGIEsmalls 23]

^^^^^^Emperor, as far as my observations, I wasn't disappointed in neither the O-Line or D-Tackles.

The stat that will obviously pop out will be 9 sacks allowed. Don't read too much into that because what I saw on majority of those sacks were: coverage sacks where our receivers didn't get separation, indecision by our QBs, & Shawn Merriman playing like the old Shawn Merriman. That being said, there is still work to do with the line (Garza included), but not close to being as bad of a unit that I expected. It was mentioned during the game that Spencer is behind on his knowledge of our scheme. I expect that to change & he will be our starting center with Garza sending either Williams or Louis to a reserve role at guard, IMO.

Melton & Okoye both stood out & did some good things, although Okoye allowed a long QB escape run because he didn't contain the outside on a critical 3rd & long play, he had two sacks. I don't think that Adams even dressed for the game.

[Icness]

I saw the 9 sacks and immediately thought it was more of the same. Then I watched the game and biggie is right, lots of coverage sacks and the QB (esp. Enderle, who looked very green) holding the ball too much and not knowing where or when to throw it. The WR play was very uninspiring but that has been the case for a few other teams in the preseason debuts. Complex scheme and not much time to get the timing or reads down, I'll give 'em a pass on that. For now...

Run blocking was decent, but the Bills are a defense in transition and very much looked like it. Their LBs are undersized and inexperienced; Moats is a college rush DE they're turning into a Mike backer and he was clueless on making calls.

Gholston was worthless, completely unable to avoid or get off blocks. Might as well cut him now and give his reps to a youngster that might actually help at some point.

I liked what I saw from Chris Conte, smart player. That Baptiste guy looked pretty active too, enough to stick on the practice squad. Lots of unfocused energy.

[BIGGIEsmalls 23]

^^^^^^Good call on Conte. For some reason, he looked very comfortable playing in our secondary. Almost like he's been here before.

[ChronicKerr]

Wooten out at least 4 weeks with meniscus damage in his knee per the Trib. That bodes very well for Gholston sticking around.

[Icness]

Wooten out at least 4 weeks with meniscus damage in his knee per the Trib. That bodes very well for Gholston sticking around.

That stinks for him. His knees have got to be to the point now where a comeback might be impossible. Too bad, I liked him quite a bit at NW and I'll still hope for the best on him.